amazon

AFTER what feels like an eternity one of the biggest battles in motoring is about to get underway. Or at least that’s what the tabloids want you to think.

In the ginger – sorry, red – corner there’s the new series of Top Gear. Chris Evans has stuck to his vow to resuscitate it post-fracas by the end of May 2016 – but only just, because the new series finally hits our screens on 29 May. Their contender in the increasingly grey-haired corner is the old Top Gear trio, only with a reportedly much bigger budget and a cyberspace colossus backing them.

The script every other newspaper report, motoring website and Facebook commenter want you to read is that Chris’ capers will crash and burn to either horrifically low ratings or the entire team falling out and vowing never to work with each other again by the end of the first series. In the meantime Clarkson’s new show will roll up, convert every TV viewer into an internet evangelist and that’ll be the end of the car show I grew up with.

All of which is utter nonsense, of course.

Top Gear vs (the rather oddly named) Grand Tour just isn’t going to happen, and I haven’t heard a single car nut tell me they’re going to watch one over the other. They’ll watch Chris Evans and Jeremy Clarkson, mainly because one’s on a TV show starting next week and the other’s fronting an online collection of films which is unlikely to start until much later in the year. I can’t be the only one wanting both to succeed, because it means for the first time we’ve got two big budget motoring shows to sit back and enjoy.

Both are fronted by blokes with charisma and a genuine, heartfelt passion for classic cars – if you’ve ever been to one of Chris’ CarFest shows and watched him wandering around gawping at the supercars, you’ll know he’s still one of ‘us’ no matter how much he admits to being overpaid by. Jeremy, Richard and James (who incidentally are publicly rooting for Top Gear’s success) are meanwhile free to do even more of the big, spectacular car adventures they did so well before someone threw a plate of cold meat in the works. I’m keeping an open mind on both, and so should everyone else.

The only thing we’re missing now is a third way for people who want an intelligent, no-nonsense car show with proper reviews about things you might actually buy. Come on Channel 4, bring back Driven…

Read more of David’s work

Recommended Blogs

Unauthorised use and/or duplication of any material from this blog without express and written permission from this site’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to David Simister and Life On Cars with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Unless stated otherwise, all text is copyrighted to David Simister and Life On Cars. Images are copyrighted to David Simister and Life On Cars, or reproduced for editorial purposes from manufacture publicity material and Newspress.